Gareth Bale could win his third Champions League with Real Madrid… but still be considered only second best British export behind legendary Welshman John Charles

IF Gareth Bale stars in his third Champions League triumph, there will be a rush to crown him as British football’s greatest export.

Most British players would not dream of heading abroad — a narrow-minded insularity that has wounded England at tournaments, while Wales profited from Bale’s worldliness, reaching the Euro 2016 semi-finals.

He was renowned for his awesome physicality as well as a sense of sportsmanship, rare in the deeply-cynical world of 1950s Italian football.

Charles was a bear of a man, yet was never booked — and a formidable opponent who famously kicked the ball out of play when a Torino player was injured during a fiercely contested derby, when such practice was unheard of.

When I once asked Jimmy Greaves to list his 50 top British footballers for a newspaper feature, he chose his close friends Bobby Moore and George Best in third and second place.

Charles, his name uttered in a reverential whisper, was No 1.

And what made Charles truly legendary was his versatility.

As his former Wales team-mate Cliff Jones said: “John was THE greatest centre-forward I’ve ever seen and he was THE greatest centre-half, too.”

Charles’ son Mel, who runs the Cross Keys pub in Hillam, North Yorkshire, spent his formative years in Turin during the peak of his father’s career.

IF Anthony Taylor was right, by the letter of the law, not to disallow Alexis Sanchez’s Cup final opener for offside, then the law is an ass.

Unless an offside player clearly ISN’T interfering with play, then he is interfering.

Reasons to be cheerful

ROB HOLDING: An Englishman from the lower leagues signed by Arsenal for £2.5million and outstanding in the Cup final. There are many more out there like him.

PETRA KVITOVA: The two-time Wimbledon champ made a winning return at the French Open after being stabbed by a burglar. The immense goodwill the Czech star received contrasted hugely with the frostiness shown to drug cheat Maria Sharapova.

GEORGE GROVES: Finally winning a world title at the fourth attempt. Uncommon guts.